Review--Ensnared by A.G. Howard

After surviving a disastrous battle at prom, Alyssa has embraced her madness and gained perspective. She’s determined to rescue her two worlds and the people and netherlings she loves. Even if it means challenging Queen Red to a final battle of wills and wiles . . . and even if the only way to Wonderland, now that the rabbit hole is closed, is through the looking-glass world—-a parallel dimension filled with mutated and sadistic netherling outcasts.

In the final installment of the Splintered trilogy, Alyssa and her dad journey into the heart of magic and mayhem in search of her mom and to set right all that’s gone wrong. Together with Jeb and Morpheus, they must salvage Wonderland from the decay and destruction that has ensnared it. But even if everyone succeeds and comes out alive, can they all truly have their happily ever after?

This trilogy has been quite a ride! It's wild and chaotic...just like Wonderland is! A.G. Howard concludes Alyssa's story in Ensnared, and...I finally get it. I've seen quite a few reviews where people were mad or upset with the way of things, and I get it! It's going to be hard not to mention my feels over it or what I think about said turnout, but I'll remain mum about it all.


We pretty much pickup where we left off, Alyssa and her father want to return to Wonderland and rescue her mother, Jeb and Morpheus, though the boys are trapped in AnyElsewhere, a different place entirely from what I was able to gather, since the gates to Wonderland are completely closed off. But first, Alyssa wants to help her father get his memories back, and that is their first task.

Their journey then takes them to AnyElsewhere where they do find Jeb and Morpheus, but Jeb has changed. He's been affected greatly by the prom ordeal and it's left him forever changed--to say the least. Worse yet, he wants nothing to do with Alyssa anymore. Morpheus is more than happy to see Alyssa again and will welcome her into his arms, if only she'd take that first step.

It seems for the entire novel, Alyssa debates with herself who she should be with; rule Wonderland--once they rescue it and rid themselves of Red--with Morpheus at her side or return to the human world and live her days out with Jeb? She can't decide, she wants both lives because she truly loves both guys. And this is where she irritates me. I guess I'm just a fan of monogamy. I don't believe a person can love two people and want to be with those two people. One or the other has to mean something more to you. But then, Alyssa isn't quite normal herself. She has always had two sides to herself; the human side who grew to love Jeb and the side that has been won over by Wonderland which in turns loves Morpheus.

It's truly a tangled web. While I get that she has two sides to herself, I still don't like her indecisiveness. It's just likely a personal thing I have with the story.

I was also expecting maybe a bit more with the ending. Something to just jump right off the pages and have my heart racing. While things were intense, I felt like the resolution just kind of came about with a snap. There's still conflict and all that, but the resolution just came along too easily for me.

The pacing to the story was great though! There's several steps into this journey and getting to a happy ending is going to take work and time. Though, it's hard to say what this ending is. I mean, I could use adjectives, but then I feel like I might lead you to think spoilery thoughts! Though I have to say, I could see the ending coming. I was hoping to be wrong, I usually am in most things, but leave it to fate that I'd be right about something I hoped to be wrong about!

Howard has created quite the magical world here! I loved how she took a beloved classic and totally twisted it around and around! You don't see much of the Alice in Wonderland tale here precisely, you have to look deep between the words in order for it to be there! But even then, we see things that we never knew possible! I loved how magical this series has been and exciting! There were some down sides to it as well, but it was a most remarkable read!


Overall Rating 3.75/5 stars--I just can quite call it a 4 star read, but it's definitely better than a 3.5. Hence I must use the ever awkward fraction star review!